In class today, our teacher urged us to probe deeper into the question of sanctification.
He asked: "if sanctification is God's responsibility, then why don't we see more "sanctified" persons around us -- especially among older adults, those who are supposed to be more mature Christians?
"Conversely, if sanctification is primarily our responsibility, does this possibly explain why we don't see more sanctified people?"
Here are some of my thoughts:
If sanctification means "the process of becoming holy," how can we sanctify ourselves? Only God is holy and can make us holy. Who am I to say, "Alright, I have declared myself holy" ?
Yes. We have to put forth effort, a lot in fact, but it really is only God who can sanctify us. We should be working on maintaining a solid relationship with God because the closer we are to Him, the more he can work in our lives and change us from within.
I'm not trying to step on toes when I say this, but I believe the reason that we are not seeing more "sanctified" persons around us is because they are not truly living a life with God. There are many people out there who have said the words, but did not mean the words and make no attempt to maintain a relationship with God or make life changes from their old ways.
James 2:14-26 talks about how faith without works and works without faith cannot function. My favorite part of the passage is verses 15-16, where it says, "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"
Verse 26 says, "For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead."
A friend visiting my house has the view that we must sanctify ourselves and he used Joshua 3:5 as an example. The problem with using this verse is that in different translations, it has different meanings. For example, in the Message, it says, "Then joshua addressed the people: 'Sanctify yourselves. Tomorrow God will work miracle-wonders among you.'" If you take a look at the New American Standard Bible, which I have had multiple Bible scholars tell me is the closest translation to the original meaning, it says, "Then Joshua said to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.'"
Consecrate means that you are dedicating something formally to a religious purpose (taken from my handy Apple computer dashboard dictionary). Isn't that such a different meaning from Santification? One means that you are declaring yourself the Lord's child and the other means that you are declaring yourselves Holy.
So here's the bare bones answer: Only God can sanctify us, but we must truly have dedicated ourselves to Him and desire a life-change and allow Him to work within us. This means that we want to spend time with Him in His word and we want to become more like Him.
The reason we aren't seeing more "sanctified" persons around us is because many people are living a life pretending to be something they are not. It sounds good to say that you are a Christian, but to truly live the life of a Christian means facing persecution and standing up for a God that you have let into your life to change you from the inside out.
The process of sanctification is one that happens over a lifetime. It doesn't happen overnight and will never be completed until the day you go to be with the Lord.
I would like to leave you with a favorite verse of mine from the book of Philippians.
Philippians 1:6 "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."
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I think your comments, Emily, are right on target. Perhaps Calvinists are right in saying that if you don't see a change in person's life, then perhaps he/she was not really "saved" to start with!
ReplyDeleteMike